US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David in Maryland, on July 31, 2026. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz / AFP via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to move forward with creating a compensation fund for his allies if two Republican holdouts refuse to back his attorney general nominee, adding new uncertainty to a Senate confirmation vote scheduled for next week and again highlighting his push to provide payments to supporters he says were unfairly targeted.
Trump asserted in his Truth Social post that he would keep acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in his current role and press ahead on the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" if Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina refuse to back the former federal prosecutor who was key member of Trump’s defense team when the Republican battled four indictments.
RELATED: Trump may pull Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general, he says
Dig deeper:
The administration needs their votes but both lawmakers have protested Blanche's selection because of a lawsuit settlement that created a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who feel mistreated by the criminal justice system and provided Trump and family members with immunity from tax audits.
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In a sign of apparent progress Friday, Trump pronounced the fund "dead." As negotiations continued into the night, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, rescheduled a committee vote for Blanche that had been postponed earlier in the week.
A spokesperson for the committee said Grassley, R-Iowa, would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess and that putting the Tuesday vote on the calendar "gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee."
But by Saturday morning, those plans were in jeopardy with a new announcement from Trump that appeared to put the fund back on the table — and dinged the two senators who are leaving Capitol Hill when their terms end in January.
What they're saying:
"If Senators Cornyn and Tillis, both upset because I wouldn’t Endorse them (they lost, and quit, respectively!), aren’t going to approve Todd Blanche, one of the most respected professionals, according to everybody, in the Country, to be the United States Attorney General, then I will keep Todd as Acting A.G., and push hard" to restore the fund. The president insisted, as he previously has, that the fund "takes care of those who have been so badly treated" during the administrations of Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
RELATED: Cornyn holdout could imperil Todd Blanche’s confirmation
Tillis, who is retiring, took note of the president's turnabout by saying in a post on X that despite Trump's comments Friday, he "clearly intends to resurrect the payout pot for punks either by inappropriately establishing another bogus fund or pushing Congress to vote for a bill that the majority of Republicans in the Senate would be against."
He added: "It’s unfortunate that Todd Blanche, who I consider qualified for the job, will not be confirmed because of this reversal. Hopefully, we can resolve this by Tuesday."
Blanche had said at a hearing two months ago that the anti-weaponization fund would not move forward after Republican senators revolted and held up an immigration funding bill.
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Trump considers pulling Todd Blanche's AG nomination
President Donald Trump says he is considering withdrawing Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general as the confirmation appears stalled in the Senate. Blanche, who has served in the role on an acting basis since April, needs unanimous Republican support on the Senate Judiciary Committee, but Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are withholding their backing over a controversial compensation fund for Trump allies. Rya Shapiro with Manhattan Institute weighs in.
But Tillis and Cornyn, who lost reelection this year after Trump endorsed his primary opponent, said they want to ensure that the White House does not reverse course, especially as Trump continues to argue that a fund is needed.
The Department of Justice has provided the senators with language that says Blanche’s May 18 order establishing the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" is "rescinded and shall have no force or effect," according to a document reviewed by The Associated Press.
Cornyn and Tillis have said they also want some clarifications on a separate piece of the settlement that would grant Trump and members of his family immunity from tax audits. Cornyn said this week that it was his understanding that the audits could extend to more than 100 different Trump organization subsidiaries into the future.
"Todd Blanche said it was limited to the parties to the litigation — and it was retrospective, not prospective," Cornyn said. "And all we’re doing is asking them to put that in writing."
The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this story comes from reporting by The Associated Press, including President Donald Trump's Truth Social post, public statements from Sens. John Cornyn, Thom Tillis and Chuck Grassley, comments from the Senate Judiciary Committee, testimony from Todd Blanche, and Department of Justice documents reviewed by the AP regarding the proposed Anti-Weaponization Fund and related settlement provisions. This story was reported from Los Angeles.